A Soft Heart
And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26 NASB
How – Not quite right. This translation in the NASB isn’t quite what Paul is saying. Your English Bible may have the same translation, or you might be using a version that says, “we do not know what to pray.” That is the real sense here. The tiny Greek particle tis means what, who or which, not how. You remember that how is pos. Paul is saying that we don’t know the mind of God as we should and for that reason we are unable to pray according to God’s purposes. We just don’t know what we should pray for. Our horizon is far too limited to see the real picture of God’s intentions. We are too focused on our needs. We think that God is particularly interested in what we believe is right. But if there is anything to learn from Scripture, it is this: God’s ways are not our ways.
Now the first part of this verse is clear. We need the help of the Spirit because the Spirit certainly knows the Father’s will. If we are going to participate in “Your will be done on earth,” we will need to have a perspective that comes from above. The Spirit rushes to our aid, standing face-to-face, lifting our weak attempts to express our desires for the Father’s purposes. God knows we need this help because we have a finite perspective and ego-bias.
How many times have you come to God in prayer, your heart burdened by some pressing issue, and discovered that you really do not know what to pray? Should you pray for God to move in this way or that? Should you pray for what seems the right way from your perspective or have you missed something God has been trying to show you? Peter tells us that the prayers of the righteous are highly effective. There is no doubt that God hears His children and answers them. But what is the right thing to pray for when there are many different possibilities? We are reminded that both sides of the war had soldiers who prayed to God for victory.
This is the realm of the Spirit. We need God’s point of view and just as we fail in our limited abilities, in He comes, interceding for us. How incredible is the care of God! Not only does He rescue us from the living death of our sinful past, He actually prays with and for us. God never waits for us to placate Him before He acts. He is there before we even know it, speaking heavenly thoughts that we cannot utter.
Perhaps the rabbis understood this far better than most of us when they prayed, “Make my heart malleable enough to be content with whatever You bring to my life.”
Topical Index: how, what, tis, pos, malleable, content, Romans 8:26
Skip, Christian prayer, as I learned originally learned it, and as it seems to exist in much of the evangelical culture, is often dominated by requests. Is it the same with Jewish prayer? Is the focus of Jewish prayer asking God for our needs?
Actually no. The focus is on blessing God.
That is what I understood it to be true. At what point in Jewish prayers does a person make requests?
Hannah made specific requests for a child so it’s legitimate to make personal specific requests but when? Are there guiding principles?
Rhetorical question: Isn’t focusing on requests to God (Please help me get all green traffic lights so I’m not late for work… Praying for a convenient parking space) a symptom of the at-large culture?
“Praying for a convenient parking space”
Daniel,
Must admit that seems sort of funny to me, but it can’t hurt to be thinking about God
But I gave up on that type of prayer at a very early age 🙂
It has been said, “the prayer that is heard in Heaven, begins in Heaven.” God, both initiates and then empowers prayer!
We do have some clues “how to pray,” one of those being Christ (Himself) who said, “Therefore pray in this way: “Our Father..” (Matthew 6.9)
May we “pull over and park” here? Did that just “slip by” some of us? Isn’t this a “selah” moment? (Stop-and think about that!) May we recall and repeat and rejoice in these words? This is no small thing here. To pray unto El Elyon, to pray unto YHWH and say -“Our Father!..” How “big” is this? Far more than this man’s child-mind can fathom. This is the bottomless well. Our crying out to YHWH, “ABBA-Father!” ~ O You that hears prayer, unto You shall all flesh come ~ (Psalm 65.2)
Might this also mean He would call or refer to us (all of us) as His “sons?” ~What do the scriptures say? ~ Dear friends, ‘now’ we are children of God! ~ (1 John 3.2)
Is there a “missing link” in all this? – Is there any direct “command” from God for us to pray? Or is this also assumed..-“when you pray..” If we are His children then we will pray- and say “Father.”
As Hebrew thinkers (forget those Greeks!), we seem to be real big on “doing” here lately. How about we “do” this: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you”
I’m rather thinking at this point- this may be a “hidden” command of Christ. Wow! What happens- what results- what consequences would we receive if we were to ask? According to Him who never lies, we would receive. And if we seek- we would find. And if we would (consistently, patiently, importunately) knock (keep on knocking!) we it would be opened (revealed) unto us.
A question. lol! (just one?) Is God out to hide His will from us? Do we, as fathers, try hide what is pleasing unto us from our children? – And what is more pleasing unto us (as fathers) than obedient children?
Go through Skip’s course on Hebrew prayer. Life changing if you take it to heart.
I love Skip’s analogy about a lion roar as a form of prayer that fits this description.